"It’s an overwhelming feeling of proudness and sadness at the same time," said Jersey City Fire Department Deputy Chief Joe Zieja, 56, prior to the funeral service of that moment when a fellow firefighter is carried into his funeral while others stand at attention.

Zieja, who has attended about 10 line of duty funerals in his 34 years on the job, said, “No one can understand this kind of loss in this situation. They are always unexpected and yet we understand every day it’s part of the job."

Barnas, 57, a 29-year veteran with the Jersey City Fire Department and a longtime volunteer with the Wallington Fire Department, died last Friday when he fell from the roof of the Alaska Japanese Restaurant on Paterson Avenue in Wallington. He was venting the roof to help put out the fire at the establishment.

The funeral procession left Warner-Wozniak Funeral Home in Wallington at 10 a.m. and it was led by a silent, slow-moving column of fire trucks from the Wallington Volunteer and Jersey City fire departments, with a rumble of more than a dozen Jersey City Police Department motorcycles.

Barnas' two sons are both firefighters. Kevin Barnas is a firefighter in Jersey City and John Barnas is a volunteer in Wallington.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Jersey City Public Safety Director James Shea are both in attendance.

Hundreds of bagpipers and drummers played before the casket was carried from the truck and up the curved church steps at shoulder height with family members and other mourners following. Honor guards from Jersey City and Wallington stood at attention.

Firefighters lined both sides of the street outside the church as many as 12 deep in places today, stretching more than two blocks. The Jersey City and Wallington firefighters were directly in front of the church.

Gregory Barnas also volunteered with two fire departments in Pennsylvania where he had a summer home, his widow, Patricia Barnas, said yesterday. A fire truck from one of those departments was also in the funeral procession.

It took nearly 30 minutes for the long funeral procession to pass the church. The procession also included a Jersey City Police Department Bomb Squad truck and a Jersey City Police Department Emergency Services Unit truck.

Firefighters from Secaucus and Bayonne also attended the solemn and decorous ceremony. They joined hundreds of firefighters from across the state and elsewhere. Firefighters will again stand in formation when the casket is carried from the church and a smaller contingent of Jersey City firefighters will also go to the cemetery.